Charles Leclerc struggled to find the right answers but Ferrari doesn’t have many to offer at the moment.
Speaking to the official F1 channel after his unexpected Q2 exit, the Ferrari driver lamented the frustrating state of the team at the moment. The Monegasque driver has struggled in recent weeks since finally breaking through with a home win at the Monaco Grand Prix, despite a series of upgrades made by Ferrari to the SF-24. He missed out on points at the Canadian Grand Prix, finished fifth in Barcelona and took home just two points in Austria for finishing seventh in the F1 sprint race at the Red Bull Ring.
This form could continue on Sunday, as Leclerc will start from 11th in what he calls a “slow” car.
“We’re just slow, really slow at the moment and there are a lot of inconsistencies with the car,” Leclerc said. F1TV. “I’m just trying to assess the situation we’re in and figure out what direction to go in, but I don’t think it’s helping much.”
The driver said the team had tried several different configurations in practice to try to find answers to the questions they had with the SF-24, and Leclerc noted that while the decision offered Ferrari some potential solutions, it wasn’t enough to secure them the time needed to advance to Q3.
“Split the car like yesterday [with pre and post-Barcelona configurations]”We have gained enough knowledge to take it forward,” Leclerc said, “but it also means that we might be too focused on learning and not optimise the whole weekend. When you’re talking about tenths of a second to get into Q3, it’s all about the small details. So at the moment we’re just suffering with the situation we’re in and hopefully we can bounce back as soon as possible.”
Leclerc compared the strategy to a similar decision made by Ferrari a year ago, when the Scuderia struggled over the summer but trying a different configuration at the Dutch Grand Prix helped the team improve in the final stages.
“I think we did that last year in Zandvoort, it was a turning point in the season and we had a good result,” Leclerc said. “There’s no need to panic too much, but it’s true that this difficult period has lasted longer than last year, so we have to react now. Hopefully from the next race onwards we can optimise our weekend again like we did at the beginning of the season.”
Things went slightly better for team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr., who made it into the third segment of qualifying and will start Sunday’s British Grand Prix from seventh place, but Ferrari currently looks inferior to its rivals.
Adding to the frustration this weekend is the possibility of missed opportunities for the Scuderia, with Sergio Perez starting from the back of the grid and Max Verstappen in fourth place, which could have given Ferrari a big push towards Red Bull at the front of the grid.
Rather, they are still searching for answers for what Leclerc calls a “slow” race car.
